The counterfactual doesn't make sense. Which country would stop or grind to a halt after electing a corrupt president? I think almost all countries would keep running at a basically normal capacity until failure, yet that doesn't prove those countries have great systems.

This will need a lot more time and hindsight to make general statements in terms of the wider picture.

We're still running in the same sense that Wile E. Coyote is still running when he goes off the cliff. Eventually we'll collectively look down.

The billions diverted from the government (tariffs, Venezuelian oil, etc) to enrich his own family and friends probably won’t make a dent in the American economy.

America is so great , it can sustain the appetite of corrupt presidencies.

What would be your definition of not running? It's like when someone says "We survived Covid!". Yes, you might have but thousands of others died.

A (fairly obvious) historical analogy is how the Roman Empire survived the reigns of maniacs like Caligula and Commodus. It's hard to ascertain how reliable historical sources are, but as presented, both of these emperors were at the least pathological narcissists, and at worst completely out of their minds. They each squandered an enormous amount of the Roman treasury on vanity projects and undermined Roman institutions and the rule of law. And yet, the Roman Empire survived both of them for centuries.

Like you, I'm impressed with how resilient the American economy has been over the past few years. The tariffs, the war, the incompetence and open corruption seem like they should have done a lot more immediate damage. What's disconcerting is that much of the damage is to America's long term interests. So much of America's greatness has come from attracting talent from all around the world into a stable lawful society. That's what we're losing.

Eventually though, the built in resiliency will be destroyed. Public services got gutted by DOGE and a bunch more called it quits.

And in the end, that is the game they are playing. Starve the beast (aka, the US government) until not much more than the military remains.

Please tell me there's an implied /s there somewhere.

have you looked closely at the state of your institutions lately. 'The country keeps running' .. a large thing has quite a lot of momentum, it will travel quite far from that alone even if you do remove it's kneecaps.

unless you dropped the '/s' ?